Recap / Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 05 E 05 The Assignment

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Another "O'Brien must suffer" episode dealt with in a unique fashion. Keiko returns from Bajor possessed by a dangerous and malicious entity. And O'Brien is stuck fighting the clock to make sure he can get it out of his wife without killing her. This marks the first appearances of the Pah-Wraith

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Adult Fear: The whole episode is this for resident Butt-Monkey Miles O'Brien. Especially when Possessed!Keiko is alone with Molly.

A Glass in the Hand: O'Brien is compelled to act normally at a party. The stress becomes too much for him when Possessed!Keiko shows mock-affection for his daughter, and he shatters his whiskey glass.

Alien Lunch: Or rather, breakfast for Rom. Eager to be accepted by the engineering crews, he tries emulating them to their meal choices. First he picks Chief O'Brien but later finds out bacon disagrees with him. He later picks another crewman to copy and orders pancakes. Since Ferengi primarily eat bugs and grubs, these are very unusual menu choices.

Faux Affably Evil: The Pah-Wraith pours on the charm for O'Brien, but it never hesitates to remind him that bad things will happen if he doesn't behave. Keiko also believes it wouldn't have spared either of them if it succeeded.

Punch-Clock Villain: The Pah-Wraith never acts especially evil, coming off more like someone who simply has a job to do.

Recycled Premise: The TNG episode "Power Play" had an evil spirit possessing Miles and threatening Keiko and infant Molly. This time, Keiko gets possessed and threatens Miles and Molly.

Sadistic Choice: O'Brien spends the episode struggling with this: help a dangerous alien (whose goal is revealed to be to kill the Prophets) or lose his beloved wife.

Smarter Than You Look: Rom begins to show his true talents, now that he decided to stop trying to be a "good Ferengi", caring about nothing but profit. O'Brien puts him to work on some modifications to the station's deflector array that the Pah Wraith gave him. Rom instantly puts it together saying "Why are we trying to kill the wormhole aliens?"

Spanner in the Works: Jadzia's habit to study some spacial phenomena when she cannot sleep led her to find the entire array has been put out of place, nearly exposing the full extent of the possessed Keiko's plan.

Rom's knowledge of Bajoran religion and folklore, which he acquired from his regular conversations with Leeta, leads to Miles realizing what the Pah Wraith is up to as well. To a lesser extent, Rom stumbling across O'Brien during the latter's "assignment", basically forcing O'Brien to enlist Rom's help.

Stepford Smiler: The possession coincides with O'Brien's birthday, so he has to act like everything's fine during the party.

Technobabble: O'Brien pulls some on Odo when confronted about everything he's been up to. Odo doesn't buy any of it.

The Tell: As his wife, Keiko has noticed that her husband has a small facial cue when he is about to ask a question. As the Pah-wraith possesses her has all her knowledge, it notices too.

Tempting Fate: O'Brien dreads having to tell Keiko that he failed to take proper care of her plants. Well, "Keiko" doesn't care about that—prompting a relieved O'Brien to say everything's fine. Then he learns that everything is most definitely not fine.

Undying Loyalty: Rom to O'Brien, even when O'Brien admits he's not actually doing a top-secret project for Starfleet. O'Brien repays him for it in the end.

Rom: The new frequency of the deflector grid is set to turn the station into a massive chroniton array aimed directly at the wormhole. So I just wanted to know... why are we trying to kill the wormhole aliens?

Would Hurt a Child: The Pah-Wraith warns O'Brien to behave by "accidentally" pulling on Molly's hair.

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